San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1887-08-22

We found Capt. Ketcham chewing up the
fnaintop scuppers at the dock. The captain
said he had lived OH the water thrty-two
years, and that his father, who was his first
mate, had been a mariner for forty five,
which represented eighty seven years of ex-
perience, and we could get the benefit Of all
this for one s. bill and lunch Then he
showed us his craft, which had two sofas, a
mainsail, camp stools, a refrigerator, a rack
for glasses, poker chips and other tackle, and
said her name was Annabelle and that she
was a catboat Dick looked her all over and
said that he supposed she was all right and
properly furnished-but where was the catl
And then Capt. Ketcham looked confused
and said that few Of his passengers knew as
much as that about nautical matters, but that
If Dick thought it necessary he could run
down to the Argyll that evening and borrow
Maltese or two to use in case we wanted a
light squall, and so we closed the bargain and
felt entirely provided
We embarked and stood proudly down the
bay-that is, the skipper, the first mate and
stood proudly down-but Dick curled up on
the sofa in the cabin and said he thought he'd
enjoy the scenery by taking light nap; then
thirty light hearted blue bottles and seven
deer flies got aboard and went In to help
him enjoy it, and for the next hour he talked
some in his sleep and then arose and declared
war.
We reached the fishing ground at II o'clock
by the simple but beautiful process of float
ing thither stern foremost with the tide The
skipper dropped anchor, and his gray haired
sire grabbed dozen menbaden, inserted them
in variety Of coffee mill, and ground out a
compound which looked like dried apple stew
and smeled as loud as a breech loading can
non. He called this "chum." He cast several
spoonfuls of it overheard, and said that the
bluefish would eagerly follow it up and swarm
about the boat in great numbers begging for
more. at once lost the last vestige Of re-
spect had for bluefsh, and rugged up my
tackle. Meanwhile Dick had captured most
of the flies, and was deep in "Vivian's Re-
venge; or, The Adventures Of Red Headed
Girl Oh White Horse" and said he was real
glad we had brought those menhaden along,
for he had acquired brain fever by sitting on
the hot sofa, knew he was going to the
morgue, and wanted to get used to feeling
dead.
Well, after the shippers venerable father
had perfumed the bay pretty thoroughly with
the chum, he inserted my hook into a fat
lump Of it and lowered away Usually,
when fishing, select some profound theolog-
ical subject and have an hour or so to digest
1t before get nibble, but on this occasion
my reverie was instantly broken by a vicious
snatch at my line, yell from my reel and
about ton of industrious trouble running
away with my tackle. Now, Leonard rod
is worth $50 and a bluefish about four cents,
and the feelings with which l saw him get
ting rapidly out to sea were fast becoming
rancid, when he suddenly changed bis mind,
leaped a yard into the air, struck his tail
across the leader, failed to part 1t because I
gave him slack, then dove fifty feet or so,
raced to windward and then to leeward,
threw another somersault, got under the boat,
sounded again, took another header into the
air, and finally, after ten minutes of bewil-
dering deviltry, be sulked alongside and al
lowed me to land him with the net was
proud and happy. called to Dick, but he
groaned and refused to look up. told him
/ had bluefish. He said he wasn't sur
p'ised-any fish ought to be blue after having